Across the Ages And Forevermore
by Eyesinthenight102
Summary: Some souls spend eternity looking for their other half...never knowing that their love is far more legendary than they could ever conceive. (AU Sleeping Warrior in Storybrooke and AU Past Sleeping Warrior) Slow-burn. Rated T for blood.
1. Prologue

Across the Ages

_AN: I might continue the past-life adventures of Alena and Lin later on… AU. Inspired by a request and a post by dubcliq on tumblr (seen here: post/39040546902/dubcliq-sleeping-warrior-au-some) I took quite a few liberties with the original legend, but Lin Siniang was, in fact, a real person and one of the first women to become a legendary warrior. _

_-x-_

Blood burbled on her lips in a wet red froth as she grimaced in pain, casting her dark eyes towards the pale pink sky of midmorning. She clutched at her belly, the sodden cloth beneath her polished steel breastplate and coif was stained a deep crimson, and she knew that the slash of her enemy's sword had cut deep and true. The gash was deep and wide, the exposed muscle still pulsed with fresh blood that failed to clot the wound closed. The two flaps of skin, parted where the thick military axe blade had struck her, looked like two jagged coastlines in a sea of inflamed red.

Her teeth clamped tight together, choking back a whine as she carefully traced the edge of the gash with a fingertip before attempting to rearrange her ineffective bindings. She pressed her palms to the roughspun fabric bandages, gingerly adding pressure to slow the sanguine creep of crimson blood.

Breathing was a chore and the guardswoman only managed to suck precious oxygen into her lungs when she clenched her abdomen, effectively flexing and tearing the already gaping fissure wider. The sticky scent of flesh and the texture of flayed meat and muscle made her stomach roil sickly, as she fought down the urge to vomit while struggling to hold in her own intestines.

She was dying. There was no question. No one, not even the legendary battle-hardened Lin Siniang, could come back from this. She hissed a shaking breath through her teeth, trying to bight back the pain as her eyes tracked the clouds that skittered wispily across the horizon.

Lin considered all the choices that had led her to this fate. All the crossroads of her life flashed before her mind's eye, showing her the points where she had selected her path; unknowingly striding closer to her doom. The memories seemed to obscure the blazing heat of pain, at least for a moment, in a haze of nostalgia.

And in her memories, she was suddenly a child again.


	2. Chapter 1

She remembered that day on the banks of the clear, swift-flowing Quinhuai.

_The river mud squelched cool and wet between her bare toes. Knobby knees shuddered in the chill of the breaking dawn as the lanky teen widened her stance and hunched her shoulders low. Determination and focus flashed in her dark eyes._

_The worn wooden broom-handle felt good, natural, in her practiced grasp. Her fingers knew each and every splinter. Her callused hands cradled against the beaten and tempered length easily with a familiarity borne of practice and time. Her thumb brushed gently over the hand-carved drake she had etched into the haft, his dagger-like claws extended, ferocious mouth agape, and breathing flame._

_The dragon was her silent companion. Always steady; never judging. Others were certainly not so kind._

_The ragged hem of her kimono swayed about her knees in the maritime breeze, a gentle reminder of a harsh reality: Wearing tatters and scraping in the gutters for food. It was a way of life. The signs of bitter poverty clung cruelly about her waist and jutting ribs._

_In the eyes of the people, she was just like the abysmal dress she wore. Worthless, nothing, irreparable._

_To them she was a lowly creature; something to be ignored, and heaped in along with the other rubbish that littered the streets of Southside's slums. To be used, then cast aside. A temporary good to be consumed, then disposed, and shunned._

_The red paint on her lips coupled with the white cake of powder on her cheek was as much a mark of her station as her garments._

_The women often talked in hushed whispers as they scuttled by, hurrying along to the comfort of a safe warm hut and a full belly._

"_Whore!" they hissed "Prostitute."_

_Lin knew they were not wrong. The coins gained from a night's work were almost worth the coldness that seemed to seep in her soul day after day._

_Almost._

_She sucked the chill air in through her teeth, reveling in the cool, clear sting of it in her lungs. Muscles tensed, stretching, flexing, and warming with the rush of heated blood and movement. She needed action, she needed chaos coupled with peace, and she needed to escape. Her body gladly obliged._

_A battle cry tore from her throat, echoing off the clear rippling waters of the racing river. She struck out with her makeshift staff, the broom handle's tip whistled and parted the air with terrifying force, speed, and precision .Imaginary villains were cleaved in two by the righteous blow and she leapt high and cat-like to avoid their non-existent strikes._

_She smashed her weapon down, pulling the heft of her weight and strength into it as she obliterated a clay pot in front of her about the same height as a man's head. Ferocity and wildness painted her face in a predatory grin while fires of vengeful victory danced in her eyes. She swept sideways, blocking and whirling out of reach. Her ebony hair splayed out behind her, tossed by the breezes and flitting through the outstretched fingers of her imaginary attackers._

_She was alone in a solitary dance. Tripping lightly, springing, along the fine line of life and death. Lin was intangible, swift, and merciless. Lost in a place where all the whispers and gnawing pains of hunger disappeared. It made her free, if only for a few moments. For a fraction of a second, she was no longer helpless._

_She clenched her dark eyes closed and roared her victory to the sky._

_But across the river someone watched, and someone heard._

_-x—_

_The enormous wedding barge was built for a Queen. Gold filigrees coated the glossy enameled hull, sprawling in swooping designs of long necked swans and prancing stags. Crimson velvet covered the plush seats and nearly a hundred men bent their backs to the oars as the floating procession was guided through the muddy currents of the Quinhuai._

_Alena DeRoswyn sighed, breathing out through her nose in a tiny huff. Her azure eyes skimmed the banks lethargically as she was borne onwards to the high hills in the distance. She crossed her ankles and smoothed the wrinkled seam of her gown._

"_Fit for a Queen, indeed." She thought with a distinct bitter chagrin. "A gilded cage, and my new husband as my keeper." Alena bit her lower lip, trying to keep the heaviness of her thoughts from sinking into her heart. She was going to be a Queen, and Queens did not cry. _

_Queens did their duty for the good of their country._

_War was brewing and alliances needed to be formed. If the cost for the safety of her people was her compliance in an arraigned and hasty marriage to an Emperor across the sea, then she would pay it. Her soul for their tranquility._

_She slipped a hand over the edge of the boat, skimming her slim fingers through the wet ripples. The glittering backs of sliver fish flitted just out of reach, leaping and splashing merrily. Something moving, hidden in the reeds caught her eye. She shaded her view with a hand, squinting._

_The princess could just barely make out hair of ebony black and a body lithe and lean, moving in a dance-like form on the other side of the river._

_It was a girl. A beautiful girl. And she was…fighting? _

_Alena felt herself being pulled, as if by an unseen force. Her eyes tracked every leap, every strike, every parry made by the tiny teenage warrior. The flickering hem of the tattered dress flashed tiny glimpses at strong calves and thighs of muscle and sinew. There was something about her that touched Alena deeply. Grace mingled with ferocity. Beauty twined with savagery._

"_She fights better than some of the swordsmen back home." Snorted the young regent, thoughtfully tapping her lip. "Perhaps….she could be of some use to me in this strange land. I could always use a companion..." the thought trialed off, dying before reaching the princess's tongue. _

"_Captain! Pull the boat to the opposite bank, I wish to stretch my legs." Alena ordered, curiosity mingled with something unknown gnawing deep in her gut. There was something about this girl that she simply had to see for herself._

_-x-_

"_Girl, what is your name?" A woman perhaps no more than 15 years of age, stepped from someplace unseen, making Lin jump in alarm. Her gown of summer green satin whispering through the reeds. She spoke gently, her accented voice soft and lilting. Her patterns of speech were prim, but comforting and filled with the sensation of genuine warmth._

_The young warrior narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She could see the silhouette of an Imperial Pleasure Barge moored only a scant few meters away. Royalty. Surely that meant trouble._

"_Lin. My name's Lin. And I'm not a girl. I'm a woman. What's it to you?" The spunky teen quipped, flipping dirty black bangs out of her eyes. A servant's quick intake of breath and the sudden tension in the air caused Lin to shuffle from foot to foot, anxiously. _

_Instinct told her she had said something very wrong, and secretly she cursed her wagging tongue. Her jaw clenched, bracing for what should have been an impending slap across the cheek for her impertinence._

_Her Majesty chuckled and swooped into a low bow, her blue eyes twinkling with mirth. "Very clever, my lady. I suppose it was quite remiss of me to mistake you for younger than is your due. Indeed you are nearly just as old as I am. My name is Alena, and I am from a land far away…I am headed to the palace to be married to the Emperor…" She pointed to the high curl topped roofs in the distance. _

"_but I have not yet met any people in this countryside…would you like to come along with me? To be my new friend?" She babbled excitedly, holding out a hand and coaxing with a radiant smile. _

_Lin noticed that her fine, rounded nails were free of dirt._

"_If…if it would please you. My lady." Lin curtseyed awkwardly, wobbling dangerously and keeping her eyes down cast._

"_Lin…" A gentle touch on her shoulder made the young warrior look up. "What are you doing here by the river side?"_

_The warrior shuffled her feet, her eyes suddenly very keen to study the tattered hem of her mud soaked skirt. "I..I'm a prostitute, m'lady. I was looking for a day's wages…but none would come. So I decided to practice my fighting skills instead, to pass the time until the men stop on their way home from the fields." Came the mumbled reply._

_Vibrant blushing shame bloomed in her cheeks. The Queen's mouth flickered, its corners edging down in a pitying frown for only a moment before she recovered. _

Perhaps_, the sovereign thought silently to herself, _I see something in this poor little urchin. A kindred spirit._ And indeed, Alena knew that Lin was someone who still held on to that inherently human fiery pride, but who was also in danger of losing the tenacious spark. She cleared her throat._

"_You need never look down or curtsey to me, do you understand? We are equals. I want you to treat me as your companion, not as your Queen." The regent spoke, her visage firm, but loving. Lin sensed, in that moment, that Alena hid something of herself from the world. Something personal, like a flickering flame that had long been guarded and repressed and was beginning to gutter out beneath the weight of her forced duty. _

_The kingdoms, the waif knew, had to be joined in alliance for the sake and safety of the people…but few ever tarried to think of the cost such an alliance entailed: The sacrifice of a young woman's vivaciousness and virginity all in the name of peace. _

_The Queen, Lin realized, was lonely. _

"_Yes, your majesty…er…Alena. I'd like to come with you, see the palace, and be your friend. I'd like that very much." She flashed a toothy grin and clamored, limbs flailing ungainly, into the gilded velvet seats of the boat._


	3. Chapter 2

(AN: I'll probably end up re-writing this chapter…I think there are a few bits that needed some elaboration and edits…Thanks to all who have read thus far. )

-x-

Lin recalled how she had soon found herself plucked, like a ripe berry, out of her poverties and raised up in the court of a Queen.

_The weight of the sword's bare blade alighted upon her white-cloaked shoulder as she knelt, head bowed before her Sovereign. _

_The white marbled floors of the high throne room were cool to the touch, and Lin's breath came in soft pants of excitement._

"_Rise, Lin Siniang, most ennobled knight and Chief Royal Protectorate to her Majesty, the high Empress of all China." The proclamation tolled from Alena's throat with gravity and personal pride. Lin's fine lips turned up at the corners, though she fought to control her indecorous grin. _

_She stood, facing her friend that she now called her Queen. She had spent so many years growing to love and know this woman, finding in her a perfect confidante and companion. Lin knew she owed the Queen far more than a debt of fealty. She owed her the life of the knock-kneed teen she had rescued from the dirty grime of the slums. She owed her the body and soul and mind that had been nurtured through all the years and tutelage._

_The hardened heart of the once-poor urchin fluttered and swelled with something she mistook for self-satisfaction, but was in fact much more. The early sparks of adoration and amour tittered gaily, dancing sprightly in her heart, and making her body shudder with eagerness as she gazed into Alena's eyes. _

"_Do you swear to always uphold the ideals of honor, justice, fortitude, and strength? Do you swear to protect the life of her Majesty even beyond death itself?" _

_This was the true test. This was how she would prove her worth and her love: Entrusted to guard the most precious life imaginable. _

_Loyalty above all. _

"_I do." The promise rumbled headily in her throat, and Lin's dark onyx eyes soon swam with tears._

_-x-_

She remembered that night hidden in the gardens. Whispering, hunched amongst the roses, for fear of prying eyes and ears. With only the stars gazing down as witnesses to the solemn oath they had made to each other.

_The dying roses were coated in a thin layer of frost, and their breath puffed out in long runnels of steam billowing from their lips. No one was awake at this hour. The inhabitants of the castle were all huddled snuggly in their beds, huddling close to the last vestiges of fire that crackled in their hearths._

_2 lone souls sat upon an artisan- carved granite bench, hunched together and speaking in hushed tones. Their bodies were hidden by the tall hedges of the perfectly trimmed rosebushes, but the glint of polished breastplate and a satin gown could still be seen beneath the hems of their woolen cloaks._

_The moon cast a strange pall over the perfectly manicured grasses and cobblestone paths of the Imperial Gardens, its pearly touch coating everything with an ethereal glow._

"_I love you." Alena murmured, brushing the back of her hand against Lin's dark cheek. Fair fingers caressed the soft skin, and the warrior leaned into the touch. She blew out a sigh, heavy with all the cares of the world. Her eyes were sad._

"_But we have duties, dearest. Responsibilities. War lies heavily on the horizons. The Emperor's advisors say that the whole country may be torn asunder. My father's armies are pledged to this land as long as I am married to His Highness."_

_The moonlight was ghostly, turning Alena's auburn hair a lighter, silvery pallor. The Queen suddenly looked far older, and far wiser than her scant 30 years of age. Her blue eyes were sad and somber._

"_We cannot risk it. If anyone were to catch us…together…it could risk the destruction of all we know here. All that we love." the word dropped from her lips like stones, each one slamming into Lin's fragile heart and cracking it like glass._

"_I'm sorry, my dearest. I'm so sorry." Eyes of limpid blue welled with tears, and Lin could sense a brokenness in her Queen. The words were killing Alena too._

_Lin cleared her throat, swallowing past the hard lump that sat there, her words came out hitching._

"_I vowed to do whatever it took to protect you. Even if that means waiting until we are old and grey before we can be happy. I will gladly stay. Perhaps someday when the Emperor has passed into the world of the dead, we can slip quietly into the shadows of history. We can live quietly in the countryside, just as you always wished…I will wait as long as it takes. I will be true to you forever, my Queen. I give you my bond."_

"_And I give you my heart, dearest. It has always been yours." The soft pad of Alena's thumb swept away the tears that Lin refused to let fall. "Always."_

Love, they agreed, was beyond the grasp of time.


	4. Chapter 3

(AN: and now, finally, the best part….)

-x-

The stuttering memories flashed before Lin's fading eyes, moving like shades of another realm. Wavering in and out of focus, the recollections of her past were ethereal and shadow-like. She felt a leadenness take hold of her legs, gripping each muscle with claws of icy chill. Death was coming quickly now.

_It was worth it. _The warrior thought, looking back on her struggles, trials, and pain. _It was all worth it just to meet her. To love her, even if it was only from a distance._

The chaos of battle roared, ebbing and flowing in utter madness only a scant hundred yards to the west, but Lin felt far away. She was merely another corpse, ignored and forgotten. Another nameless face, struck down in battle while fighting to rescue her homeland from invaders and protect her Queen. Her life meant nothing now. All that remained were dancing shadows of what was long gone.

Her heart felt heavy with the meaninglessness of it all.

Fingers twitched, the sensitive tips of each digit growing stiff, coated with her drying blood. Her eyes fluttered closed momentarily, trying to block out the wails of the dying and the reek of decay on the battlefield.

A sharp intake of breath, and a touch on her shoulder brought her back. Her eyes snapped open, gazing up into the fair face of her one true love.

'_She's here.' _Lin rejoiced internally, her slowing heart skipping a beat_ 'She came to stay by my side.'_

Her cracked, bloody mouth struggled to twitch into a crooked grin.

The Queen's countenance had aged handsomely over the years. Fine lines at the corners of her eyes had etched themselves deeper, mirroring the gentleness of her laugh lines, and telling of a woman who always remained ready and willing with smiles.

Her auburn hair fell long, past her shoulders to the middle of her back in rippling waves, held out of the way by a tiny golden circlet adorned with rubies. The semiprecious stones glinted sharply in the waxing sunlight of the breaking dawn. Skin that had once been pale and creamy in her youth now showed the telltale signs of spotting and age, but her eyes were unchanged. They were exactly as Lin had remembered from that day upon the banks of the Quinhuai.

Alena's eyes were a blue as clear as ice on a northern sea, sharp, keen, and crackling with intelligence and wit. Kindness and generosity rested heavily in her crystalline irises, coupled and kindled by that guarded spark that still burned like an ember of long forgotten hope. For a moment, Lin lost herself in the familiarity of that gaze.

"Oh, my dearest." Alena whispered, cradling the warrior's head in her lap. The fine silks whispered softly against Lin's cheek. Tears brimmed, falling like water from eyes like limpid pools. 'Everything will be all right, I will get the physician. He will bind up your wounds…" The words of meaningless comfort fell stalely from the Queen's lips, and the warrior met her with a resigned stare, cool and steady.

The faithful protector was too far gone. They both knew it. It was only a matter of time.

"Do not…grieve for me, Alena." Lin's voice rasped out hoarse and hitching. Rusty colored saliva sputtered at the corner of her lips. "I have died an honorable death."

The Queen's eyes grew red-rimmed, and her face screwing up in anguish. "Oh, my sweet…Please…Do not leave me yet. Please. We promised that after the war was over, and the King stepped down from his throne that we could live together. Please. Stay with me a moment longer-" Trembling fingers combed through ebony locks, brushing them with tenderness and care.

"I have loved you for all my lifetime." Came the breathy whispered reply "And I shall love you for a thousand life times more…look for me when the stars are in the heavens, and remember our promise we made…for I will always be with you…" Lin's voice cracked and died as the last vestiges of oxygen crawled out of her collapsing lungs, and her slowing heart thudded to a stop, content to beat no more.

The tears of the Queen flowed freely, as their lips met for the last time.

-x-

Aurora lay on her back, hands folded behind her head, and blew a sigh out her nose. Azure eyes of crystalline blue watched in bored fascination as an errant lock of her auburn hair fluttered with the force of her exhalation. The dark hardwood of the apartment flooring was cool on her skin, and a slight chill seeped through the fabric of her shirt to play upon her spine.

She turned her head, gazing up at the tanned face of her girlfriend, whose attention was claimed by the dusty pages of a book.

"Mulan…Do you ever think about past lives?" asked the princess, curiosity amplified by the stillness of the afternoon.

Mulan grunted an unintelligible reply, her eyes still trained on the parched pages of her tome.

Aurora wrinkled her brow in thoughtfulness. "Do you think people ever get reincarnated? Like souls in a different body?"

Mulan smirked, shrewdly realizing that the day's period of silent reading had drawn to an end. She flipped the book closed, tossed it haphazardly upon the end-table, and turned to watch the princess splayed out upon the floor.

"I suppose it could be possible." The warrior said with a tilt of her chin. "There's an old legend from my land that says that the spirit can never pass onto the otherworld unless it has found and joined with its other half. Why do you ask?"

Aurora rolled, flipping onto her stomach, and propping herself up on her elbows to gaze into the face of her warrior. "I dunno. It just sounds kind of awful. Not being able to die; just stuck reliving everything."

Mulan shrugged, tipping her head thoughtfully to the side. "I don't think so. It means people are allowed to continuously find each other. Forever remembering and rediscovering the best things they love about one another….It's a promise that no matter how far apart or how long the other has to wait, fate will always bring them together. Lifetime after lifetime."

The princess's brow furrowed as the words hung heavily in the air. Her forehead wrinkled, and her mouth drew itself into a thin line.

Lifetime after lifetime… thousands of years….

Something about the phrases seemed to jangle in her skull like discordant bells, stirring something deeply hidden and long forgot in the misty annals of her mind. Her eyes grew detached and distant as if seeing something far away. The clarity of her crystal blue irises misted over with a hazy thoughtfulness as her mind probed, searching for some memory that danced dream-like out of her grasp.

There was a distinctness about this moment, she thought. A feeling of déjà vu, coupled with the sense of the spiritual. Her soul itself suddenly felt far older and far wiser than she had ever known it to be.

_I give you my heart, dearest. For it has always been yours._

"Yes…I suppose that's true." Aurora murmured; her voice soft. "It's lucky we didn't have to wait that long to find each other, I guess."

A rare sad smile graced Mulan's tanned cheeks as she leaned over to place a soft kiss upon her princess's forehead. "Even so, I would find you. I've loved you a thousand years, and I'd love you a thousand more."

_-FIN-_


End file.
